As I received all of the ores, I looked through my crafting menu again.
I now had enough resources to craft a {Standard Iron Sword}, it was 20 iron and 50 wood. It looked significantly better than the {Lesser Stone Sword} I was currently wielding.
Chloe looked at me with a smug look on her face.
"Good job, I guess."
"You can praise me a little more you know~"
I pat her on the head.
"Is this what you wanted?"
I felt my insides churn as I cringed at what I just did. For some reason, it just happened.
"Not exactly, but it's not too bad~"
After a little while, Rosie also returned from her journey into the forest. She was holding a large number of fruits and vegetables.
"Look what I got!"
"Those will be good for dinner tonight," I replied.
I began setting up the crockpot for dinner. Everyone gathered around it, taking a seat on various logs I had placed around the area. The bright orange smoke was hypnotic as the bottom of the crockpot slowly heated up. Rosie poured in some water and vegetables and I put some meat in as usual.
"Hey, William," Chloe called out to me.
"Yeah?"
"I can take care of this if you want."
"Alright then, I had something I needed to do."
"Okie~"
She took over looking over the crockpot and I made my way back into my hut. Most of my Minions were still outside as I wanted to gather resources for a little longer. With my new {Standard Iron Sword}, I snuck out without anyone noticing and began making my way into the forest. I went the same path I took the previous day until I finally reached the place where the injured girl was.
Ugh, where is she?
I looked around the area and saw that she wasn't there anymore. I had wanted to speak with her in order to check my suspicions about a particular person, it was someone who I had suspected for a while now. However, since she was no longer here, I would have to wait for another day.
I made my way back through the forest towards my settlement as it was starting to get really quite dark.
However, I was met by a very bright light in the distance. Not only light but there was also a huge cloud of smoke above it. As I made my way closer, I realised that the area was quite warm. There had been a fire at my settlement.
I rushed back and saw that one of my huts was on fire. Elrich, Rosie and Chloe were all nowhere to be seen.
Ah, it's finally happened.
Suddenly, the first person I saw running towards me was Rosie.
"William! Someone set the hut on fire!"
She grabbed my arm and pulled me back.
"Let's get out of here!" She yelled.
"Wait."
I walked further into my settlement and looked around the area.
I couldn't find Elrich or Chloe.
I ordered all of my Minions to return as I tried to figure out the situation.
"Rosie, where did the other two go?"
"I don't know! I think they ran away!"
Suddenly, Elrich appeared. Rosie appeared visibly shocked at his appearance.
"William, Chloe was with me when we were watching the crockpot but now she's gone for some reason." He stated.
"Elrich, it's fine."
"Huh?"
I needed to find Chloe first and foremost. I searched the general area, looking around the burning hut which looked like a large bonfire. The wood slowly burned into char and black dust. I looked into the hut from the outside but there was no sign of Chloe. The only other place she could be was in the forest. I ran into the forest, looking around at the various trees. My vision was heavily blocked so I struggled to look far into the distance.
"William, what are you doing?" Elrich shouted at me.
I continued searching around the forest until finally, I managed to see a slight movement. As I made my way closer, Rosie suddenly ran towards me. She grabbed my arm again and pulled me back towards the settlement.
"William! It's not safe, let's get your Minions first!"
I shook her off.
She stood silently as I ran further into the forest. All of a sudden, behind a tree, I saw Chloe tied behind a tree. There was an extremely thick rope that attached her to the tree, she was simply sitting there waiting, the rope was also stuck inside her mouth so she couldn't make any noises.
I quickly removed the ropes as she slowly got back up.
"Took you long enough~"
"Don't you have any sense of danger?"
"I'm not dumb, you know."
"I don't really have time for this, we need to go back and deal with her."
The two of us ran back towards the settlement.
Before us, Rosie stood, with a large ring of water surrounding her. It was flowing around freely as if she was manipulating it herself.
*
I figured it out a few days ago.
Rosie's movement had been suspicious.
First of all, despite claiming to have a botany-themed system, she didn't appear to have any abilities related to plants.
Whenever she went out on expeditions, she came home with wounds.
However, that wasn't enough to suspect her.
She might have just been lying for some other reason.
However, once I met Chloe and more importantly when I saw the girl on the ground, I realised it.
It was true that Chloe had beaten up the girl. However, I noticed something quite suspicious.
The accessory that the girl was wearing was the exact same accessory that Rosie wore.
The Knife of Kali.
She also had some plants on her that I have only ever seen Rosie collecting.
I finally figured it out.
Rosie was lying.
*
"How did you know!" Rosie exclaimed as she violently cycled fresh water around her.
"I'll admit, you were pretty subtle."
"How did you find out!"
"Are you really interested in that at the moment?"
Her face was covered with anger.
"Hey, Rosie," I tried to speak to her, "someone else is making you do this, aren't they?"
"Why does that matter? I'm your enemy now!"
"Well if it's someone else, I'll just have to deal with them instead."
She shot a jet stream of water towards me, just barely grazing my cheek.
"Who is it? Who's making you do this?"
Looks like I'll have to act like a shonen protagonist for a little while.
She stopped listening, and instead, put more energy into her attacks.
Ah, what a hassle.